A boom time for selling Tea Party merchandise

Jeff Winkler

Jeff Winkler is a Daily Caller staff writer covering firearms, as well as campaign advertising and fringe culture topics. He worked previously for several Arkansas and New Zealand publications. His byline has appeared in Slate, Reason, Good magazine, the Guardian, Washington City Paper and most notably, Worm Digest.

Freedom might cost a buck-o-five, but you need a little more to look P-I-M-P at a Tea Party rally.

No longer just selling homemade buttons for gas money, Tea Partiers have been setting up shop along the internet highway as Tea Party brand recognition grows. Evidence of the Tea Parties’ popularity can be found in polls, sure, but the proof is in the marketplace as well. The reverse appears to be true for President Obama, whose positive trend at the polls and the souvenir stand have both dropped. Now that the Tea Party brand is rising, it should be no surprise that others are getting in on a piece of the action, too.

“The Tea Party merchandise, across the board, is the most popular category of the political merchandise we have,” said Michael Karns, director of public relations of Zazzle, which hosts and creates products designed and submitted by users.

“Tea Party products on Zazzle are more popular than any pro-Democratic products,” he said. “It’s more popular than any pro-Republican group of products and the only thing that gives the Tea Party merchandise a run for its money are … products with an anti-Democrat sentiment.

Karns said the company likes to think of the “Zazzle marketplace as an indicator of trends,” like the finger on the pulse of America. Café Press — operating a platform similar to Zazzle — has checked their heart monitors and have taken note, too.

“We’ve been around for a good three presidential elections and we have over 400,000 designs uploaded everyday, so the site has become somewhat of a cultural barometer of trends happening,” said Amy Maniatis, Café Press’ vice president of market.

The Tea Party, she said, has been one of the trends they’ve noticed.

“Sales for Tea Party merchandise have just tripled in the last few months compared to last year or earlier this year where we were averaging well over 100,000 a month,” she said. “We really started to see it gain moment about February of this year and it stayed consistent since then. “

She continued, “What we’re seeing is, broader designs, broader views being identified as Tea Party ideology… I think what we’re seeing is a great deal more momentum of people identifying with it, identifying their sensibilities with the Tea Party. “

When Tea Party products first appeared on Zazzle, Karns said they were resoundingly negative in message. But in the past few months Zazzle has seen “the sentiment sort of, not a sea change, but a softening of the Tea Party… Instead of simply saying, ‘Out with the old,’ the Tea Party movement now has a place to focus their positive efforts.”

Apart from that moment of political analysis, companies like Café Press and Zazzle are in it to make money. Growth in diversity and acceptance of the Tea Party is great for the movement, but it also means wider markets for the business-savvy. Most small-time, dedicated Tea Party merchants, however, say that they’ve seen spikes in sales as well. But they say any profit they make goes towards furthering Tea Party causes.

Up and running since July 4, Tea Party Gear Online is serving as a hosting and promotional site for other Tea Party groups.

“What we’re doing is allowing other Tea Party groups from across the country to list products on the site free as means for Tea Party groups around the country to raise funds,” said site operator Michael Kinzie.

Kinzie said one of the best-selling items on the site is more “educational” than anything else: copies of the Federalist Papers. That’s not to say that the bling-bling doesn’t do well at Tea Party Gear. The other top sellers on the site are various flags, the Constitution and tea pot pins made with enough gold and crystal to make Paul Wall smile.

I have an idea….on the front it should say “Taxed Enough Already” and on the back it should say “Reduce the Deficit, NOW!!!! then on the sleeves they should list all the programs they want to cut and how much exactly PERCENTAGE wise that will reduce the deficit by. Otherwise…..it’s a slogan that means nothing.

Momma M

Programs? Who’s limiting the cuts to “programs”? Lets go for the real corruption (fraud/waste/abuse)… The DEPARTMENTS… Two – specifically come to mind:

The Department of Education
The Department of Energy

Defunding those alone would whittle away at the defecit…

Momma M

Whether you are a “member” of the Tea Party or not, most of the “slogans” I’ve seen are simply commonsense statements and therefore appealing to a wide variety of consumers. “Taxed Enough Already” is a prime example. Who could possibly disagree with that statement?

Who gives a rats a$$ what austan goolsbee thinks, he knows less about economics than a 4 year old.

doncicciofitipaldi

Erick1740 who I’m certain has a PhD in economics from McDonnalds University in Paducah, KY should educate us all in how to cut taxes and reduce teh deficit at teh same time by cutting certain programs and exactly how much that would save on a percentage basis, yealy and in the next 10 years. Go get another Big Mac, feed your brian and let us all know…….

doncicciofitipaldi

I got another “common sense” slogan:

“Reduce the Deficit by Cutting Taxes, NOW” and on the back it should say: